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Morning Lineup – May 13

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Monday Morning – "Thanks, Mom!"

Today is the day after Mothers' Day and it is a landmark date for a not-so-joyful reason.  I don't know exactly how to best phrase this, but I'll give it a try.  AshleyMadison.com, the world's leading "cheat on your spouse" dating website, (The most famous name in infidelity and married dating. Our Married Dating Services for Married individuals Work. Have an Affair today on Ashley Madison. Thousands of cheating wives and cheating husbands signup everyday looking for an affair. Married Dating has never been easier.), issued a press release last week saying that they typically see the highest spike in female signups on the day after Mother's Day. In 2012, they experienced a whopping 439% increase in signups on that day as compared to a typical Monday.

Make of that whatever you will, I'm no psychologist.  But I'll bet that a lot of that has to do with Hubby failing to meet the bare minimum of gratitude for Mommy's role in the family unit.  At least, get her a card!

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On the more literate side of the news ticker this morning, there were rumblings last week that Microsoft will be purchasing the Nook digital e-reader business from Barnes & Noble booksellers.

Slashgear

Nook has had a withering year trying to compete with Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPod for downloading ebook sales.  Just how bad is apparent when you consider that while the ebook business is taking off like a rocket, Nook lost money last year and is still bleeding.

Microsoft already owns 17.6% of Nook after buying their way into the digital book market and it is being speculated that they want it all so that they can better compete with Kindle, iPod, Sony and Kobo.  And B&N would like to shuck the e-reader and concentrate on their bricks-and-mortar bookstore business.

I think we'd better get started on the equipment check now.  It's Monday and that means the long form.  It also means an extra pot on the Bunn-O-Matic, so I'll make sure there's plenty there for us.  See you back in the day room later.

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Posted by on May 13, 2013 • Filed under: Kindle, morning lineup • Tagged: ,

Ebook Review – “How Winning Works: 8 Essential Leadership Lessons from the Toughest Teams on Earth”

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A series of occasional reviews of eBooks that are
written by, or about fire-rescue-ems people.

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How Winning Works: 8 Essential Leadership Lessons
From the Toughest Teams on Earth

by Robyn Benincasa
Reviewed by Greg Friese

I met Firefighter/EMT and adventure racer Robyn Benincasa a day before the start of the Primal Quest adventure race several years ago. Her team was preparing to spend nearly a week running, hiking, paddling, cycling, and climbing through the tough deserts and canyons around Moab, Utah. We discussed the physical and mental challenges ahead for her and the team and how her training and work as a firefighter/EMT prepared her to succeed.

In How Winning Works: 8 Essential Leadership Lessons from the Toughest Teams on Earth Benincasa describes how effective teams can set and attain goals in the face of crushing and seemingly insurmountable adversity.  The publisher's blurb states that Benincasa shows you how to climb to new levels of professional and personal success. She shares the eight essential elements of teamwork, learned through her extreme adventure racing, that create synergy with all the teammates in your life, from colleagues and customers to family members and friends

Each leadership principle is told with anecdotes from adventure racing, endurance sports competition, or the fire ground. Benincasa is a great story teller and richly describes the jungle treks or long distance paddles that she helped make famous as an Eco Challenge race. That same story telling ability continues when sharing patient care experiences as well as chronicling her own health challenges. As a paramedic and endurance athlete I would have liked more adventure racing stories and personal biography, but the focus on leadership is equally rewarding.

How Winning Works would be a great holiday gift for your favorite firefighter or anyone looking to hone their leadership skills by putting the team first.

………. Greg Friese, MS, NREMT-P

 
Greg Friese writes the EverydayEMSTips.com blog and hosts the Medical Author Chat podcast.

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How Winning Works …. is available in both hardcover and Kindle eBook versions.  You can read more about the book and order copies HERE .

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Posted by on November 28, 2012 • Filed under: Book Review, Kindle • Tagged: ,

Morning Lineup – November 2

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Friday Morning – What Are You Reading?

We got word last night that Engineer Sam had his power restored yesterday.  He lives in southeast Pennsylvania and had gone a few hours short of three days without electricity, but everything seems to be ok now.  I think the magic number for losing the supply in your home freezer is four days or a little more, so that's a good outcome, considering.  We had last heard from him when he sent in his report while standing by at the firehouse……

FossilMedic had fled the coast completely by flying down to New Orleans for that big super-EMT expo being held there.  So when he gets back tonight all he has to face is the usual Friday night traffic jam.

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On another topic, we have been consistently keeping you updated on the electronic book industry and even ran a series this past Spring on e-readers and other methods of downloading and reading e-Books.  It's definitely the accelerating trend that is tranforming the way we read books, magazines, etc.  But recently we were reminded that this concept of e-readers is really not a new one.  (We are forever being reminded that there's nothing new anymore, only old ideas being brought up to date.)

Smithsonian Magazine – which is now online, of course – posted an article back in March that features the forerunner of the Kindle, iPad, and Nook e-readers.  This inventive device uses microfilm as the delivery system since, naturally, digital printing was still a ways in the future.  Microfilm was first patented in 1859 but was refined and put to commercial use in 1925 as a means of preparing miniature photos of bank documents and cleared checks.

The April 1935 issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics magazine featured this book reader of the future:

Smithsonian tells us:

The April, 1935 issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics included this nifty invention which was to be the next logical step in the world of publishing. Basically a microfilm reader mounted on a large pole, the media device was supposed to let you sit back in your favorite chair while reading your latest tome of choice.

It has proved possible to photograph books, and throw them on a screen for examination, as illustrated long ago in this magazine. At the left is a device for applying this for home use and instruction; it is practically automatic.

Additional text accompanying the illustration reads, "You can read a ‘book’ (which is a roll of miniature film), music, etc., at your ease."

I don't know for certain, but I'm willing to bet that this device never got into production.  Yet it shows us that some people were working on the idea 80 years ago.

Some of the tools on our fire engine date back 80 years, too.  So let's get started checking them out for the day.  Thank goodness we have modern coffee-makers, I'll get ours fired up and see you later back in the digital day room.

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Posted by on November 2, 2012 • Filed under: Kindle, morning lineup • Tagged: , , ,

eBook Review – “The Missing Semester”

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A series of occasional reviews of eBooks that are
written by, or about fire-rescue-ems people.

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The Missing Semester

by Matt Kabala and Gene Natali, Jr.
Reviewed by Bill Schumm

This book on personal finance planning and control was co-authored by two firefighters and is primarily aimed at young adults in their late teens and early twenties, and especially recent college graduates.  Namely, people who are maturing and moving into the age where they will be providing for themselves and solving their own financial problems.  The title refers to the life lessons that are not necessarily taught in high school but need to be picked up somewhere and this is a good place learn.  The Missing Semester is written in a conversational manner that is level with how today's young adults talk to and write to each other.  Put another way, they can get it on the first reading.

It begins by explaining "why the financial stuff matters" and sets the theme for the entire book about taking effective personal responsibility for your spending habits.  They concentrate mostly on explaining the ins and outs of student loans, followed by the next level – credit cards.  After that comes an instructive lesson on the potential pitfalls of car loans and how to find out first, how much you will actually be paying and how to honestly decide on what you can afford.

After four chapters of explanation they move into the topic of "taking ownership of your future" all the while emphasizing that any job is better than no job when it comes to supporting yourself.  This then leads into how to make cost-effective career moves.  One of the main points they make here is to let your career of choice determine what kind of advanced education and what major you take,  not the reverse.  We've all seen or heard of people who pursued a degree in their favorite topic and then found out that there is no career path open for that area of knowledge.  Just how many employers are looking for experts in Elizabethan Literature anyway?  Find the kind of job you like first, and maybe even start earning, and then tailor your advanced education to enhance your occupation.

The next major area that they take you through is how to make investments  and why it is a necessary part of your financial planning and activity.  After driving home the importance of setting up an investment plan, they tell you about the many ways there are to save and how to set up a realistic budget plan to follow.

And finally they explain how and when to purchase a house.  Is it right for you now?  Or later?  What are all the different methods that the salesmen and the banks use to get you to part with your money?  Can you afford it?

After reading through this book, I came to the conclusion that this isn't just for your growing kids.  Everybody can learn a lot of helpful things and better understand the background of financial choices that we all have to make constantly through our lives.  So if you have a teenage child, use that as an excuse to buy this book for yourself.  (Just make sure that Junior reads it too.)

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Matt Kabala and Gene Natali started their fire service careers together as volunteers in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area.  Gene still resides in Pittsburgh, but Matt is now a career firefighter in South Carolina where he also serves as the plan manager for his department's supplemental retirement plan.

You can read more about the book and the authors on the dedicated website: http://www.themissingsemester.com/home.html .

The Missing Semester is available in both paperback and eBook in Nook and Kindle versions.  They can be ordered directly through the website or you can order the Kindle version through Firegeezer by CLICKING HERE .

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Posted by on October 3, 2012 • Filed under: Book Review, Kindle • Tagged: , , ,

Morning Lineup – September 29

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Saturday Morning – What Are You Reading?

We have been trying to keep you updated on the burgeoning field of digital publishing over the past year or so.  It is definitely the "future is now" path of printed information delivery.   ("information delivery" … how's that for NewSpeak?).  So as a side note, I'll pass along this brief announcement that was posted by Yahoo! Tech News:

California Governor Jerry Brown signed two bills Friday that will fund the creation of 50 open source digital textbooks and will launch the California Open Source Digital Library to host them. The law could help bring down the ballooning expenses of college for students and their families.

The 50 titles will be selected by the California Open Education Resources Council. The group will pick the textbooks from public, post-secondary classes, then collect bids for the creation of those materials as digital books in 2013. The law requires that the digital titles be protected under Creative Commons licenses, which means they can be accessed and used by teachers or students outside of California.

Among our many updates in the past, we have documented several instances of local school systems and college textbook publishers making texts available as eBooks, but this statewide mandate will be a big kick in the butt for advancing the transition to digital textbooks.  And by making them Open Source publications there is a natural brake to keep them from selling at artificially high prices as is the current practice.  I don't think anything but good can come from this measure.  Not much good is coming out of California these days, but this is an exception I can applaud.

Kalona Public Library

The cool, dry airs of autumn are creeping closer now, so I think I'd better move my sweaters and flannel shirts out to the top of the pile this weekend.  I'm always glad when those two periods (spring and fall) arrive when we go for a few weeks without any air conditioning or furnace blowing going on.  But every day we still need to get the equipment checklist out and do our duty, so let's get started with that now.  I'm headed for the coffee center to get that replenished too.   See you back in the day room in a little while.

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Posted by on September 29, 2012 • Filed under: Kindle, morning lineup

Morning Lineup – June 23

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Saturday Morning – What's Cooking?

For the past year I have been chatting frequently about this fascinating cultural shift from printed books (and other publications) to digital publications that are downloaded to your computer or portable devices like iPads and Kindles.  I will be continuing this because it directly affects fire and EMS services, too.  More and more, higher educational institutions are switching to eBooks as the publication-of-choice for textbooks and we need to get used to that. 

A high percentage of firefighters and EMT's pursue additional training and certification through continuing education courses, and we are seeing a rapid shifting to online studies via "distance learning" institutions.  This will only accelerate as more of these DL schools get accreditation for their classes allowing them to be transferred to traditional colleges for course credit.  Once that happens, tens of thousands of our compatriots will suddenly become eligible for advanced study that previously required attendance at some campus too far away to be able to participate.

I'm not going to get into all that just now, but in the near future Professor FossilMedic will be addressing this online education growth that is opening up for you.  I bring it up now because I want to alert you to what's happening in the higher-ed. universe.  You don't see it from where you sit now, but believe me, it's rolling in like an Outer-Banks tide right now and it will appear like a Big Bang, ready for action.  So start getting ready now.

What brought that on was still another recent report on how the digital book world is changing that I wanted to mention this morning.  It has nothing to do with fire or EMS, but rather with eBooks in general.  The article that caught my eye is titled:  The Future of Cookbooks …. They'll Go Extinct and That's OK.  It was written by a cookbook author and has an interesting take on how the digital revolution will be affecting his trade.  First of all, L. V. Anderson, the author lets us know that a high percentage of cookbook sales these days are for gifts and rely on pleasing photos and slick paper to get you to take one home with you.  Surprisingly, only a very small percentage of cookbooks are purchased for self-use.

She goes on to say that while print editions may well outlast other print books, they will eventually go extinct and that is just fine with her.  Quoting from the article that I am referring to:

I’m not only certain of the imminent demise of the print cookbook—I’m fine with it. That’s because print cookbooks offer nothing that apps, e-books, and websites can’t, despite print enthusiasts’ efforts to recast them as objets d’art.

The appeal of a tangible gift—one that can be wrapped and physically handed to another person—is deeply ingrained in some people. But over time, our present-exchanging customs will adapt to our increasingly online world. Cooking applications for tablets and smartphones will likely join Netflix subscriptions, Amazon gift cards, and iTunes playlists as popular digital presents, effectively wiping out the gift-cookbook phenomenon.

The Internet is far superior to cookbooks for helping readers suss out recipe quality (and, to a lesser extent, so are apps that allow users to rate recipes). Before the Internet, if you wanted to find out how good a recipe was, you had to make it yourself (or take the word of a friend whose palate may or may not be compatible with yours). Now, you can Google the type of recipe you’re looking for, browse several versions (and readers’ comments on them), and choose the one with the highest user rating. Reader reviews can even help you make a recipe better (by suggesting that you add more salt or a pinch of cayenne to your stuffed peppers) or tailor it to your dietary restrictions (by substituting crumbled tofu for that ground pork if you’re vegan or kosher). For people who are interested primarily in cooking recipes that taste good, the Internet is a better resource than any cookbook ever was.

For quite a few years years now, I have been relying on The Food Network website and its thousands of recipes for different ways to prepare favorite dishes and have benefited from the wide variety of recipes for a particular dish to choose from.  And when you stop and think about it, with all the cooking that goes on in the firehouse and the growing use of personal digital devices, we are seeing this transformation taking place right now and probably didn't realize it.

Read the full article that I'm talking about HERE  and see if you don't agree.

One thing we'll agree on is that we need to break now and get this equipment checked out before the Saturday shoppers and weekend DIY's start finding ways to get in trouble.  I'll fire up the Bunn-O-Matic and then meet you back in the digital day room.

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At Amazon:
Kindle E-Reader Prices Start at $79

CLICK HERE to review the assortment available and order yours.

(Firegeezer recommends the Kindle Touch 3G model)

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Posted by on June 23, 2012 • Filed under: Kindle, morning lineup

eBook Review – “Dead Pen Pals”

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A series of occasional reviews of eBooks that are
written by, or about fire-rescue-ems people.

Dead Pen Pals

by David Diamantes
Reviewed by Bill Schumm

Dead Pen Pals is what the trade calls a "police procedural" mystery. It follows a group of detectives who are investigating a collection of crimes, including murders, that start coming together into one interconnected group of incidents.

Lately it has been the fashion of crime authors to introduce an unwieldy number of characters into the story, often people who are related to one another in complex ways, as a means to keep the reader confused and unable to keep track of them well enough to try and "solve" the crime as they read along. I am glad to say that Mr. Diamantes avoids this tendency and lets the story itself confound you.

The main characters who make up the detective sub-squad are Detective Michael "Bugs" Cameron, Detective Andy Debbs, and the team rookie Detective James Nelson "Buddy" Holly. The trio work under the head of the detective division, Lt. Irving Michaels. They are joined during their workdays by a police polygraph examiner, Jim Bishop, who comes in and out helping them with their pursuit of the facts that are being collected.

Detective Cameron is also a hobbyist beekeeper, an avocation that leads him to getting acquainted with a lovely tv reporter, Donna Tangerini who needs some help that she thinks only he can provide.

As the story unfolds, we are told about several seemingly unrelated personal events going on such as Donna's "problem." At first it leaves you wondering why these personal experiences of different characters from a wide range of economic and cultural levels are being introduced to us. But once we learn about a disgusting pervert named Duncan Weller and how he makes his living, then we start to see how everybody's situations have a trail of crumbs that lead back to Weller.

Neil Hartley, an insurance agent with a psychotic wife and a taxi driver with a dubious background pull the detectives into more investigations, and yet they keep returning to Weller.

The action gets going early with the first murder appearing at the 11% mark, and things accelerate at 12% when they really take off. You will fly with the action right up to the end of the story that concludes with a classic surprise ending. You probably won't have guessed the killer unitil Dave decides to tell you.

It's a good read without any dull moments and I thoroughly enjoyed the novel.

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For Kindle eBooks  CLICK HERE to order your copy.  Price $3.99

David Diamantes is a retired fire captain who worked in a large, municipal fire and rescue department. He now runs a fire protection and code compliance consultancy.

He is also the author of two textbooks, Fire Prevention, Inspection and Code Enforcement; and Principles of Fire Prevention. Both books are still in wide use by college-level fire administration programs nationwide.

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Posted by on June 12, 2012 • Filed under: Kindle

Free eBook for EMS Week

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Offer Expires Midnight Tuesday

OUR BLOGGING COLLEAGUE GREG FRIESE has found us a great deal on a new EMS eBook.  A free download until midnight Tuesday night.  Here in Greg's words he tells us about the book and the author of 2 Weeks a Year:  Finding Humor While Deployed in Iraq, Chat Trent Cherin.

In this episode of the Medical Author Chat Trent Cherin tells us about his book 2 Weeks a Year: Finding Humor while Deployed in Iraq which is about his deployment to Iraq as an Army National Guard Medic. Unlike most authors being a medic wasn’t something Trent did full-time. Rather it was something he did away from his normal work because he enjoyed helping others and being part of the National Guard. He describes being a medic as "a nice break."

2 Weeks a Year is a chronicle of Trent’s 548 total days of deployment. Much of which he spent on a base in Iraq just north of Baghdad. The book was put together from photos and emails he sent to family and friends during his deployment. He also wrote the book as a way to remember his experience.

EMS Week Special: Trent is graciously offering a free download of 2 Weeks a Year from Amazon for the Kindle e-reader or Kindle app during EMS Week 2012. This download is only available from midnight Sunday to midnight Tuesday. Make sure to take advantage of this opportunity to download the book.

The list price for the eBook is $4.99, but you can download it for FREE to your Kindle or your Kindle app on your smartphone or computer.

Just CLICK HERE to get the order page and download NOW (remember, offer expires at midnight Tuesday).  Thanks, Chat!

Firegeezer sez:  I just downloaded one for me.

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Posted by on May 21, 2012 • Filed under: EMS Topics, Kindle, shopping

Morning Lineup – February 9

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Thursday Morning – Things to Read

There was a tragic accident last evening involving a fire department paramedic that is also notable for its unusual occurrence.  An automobile fire on I-395 in Arlington County, Virginia, during the evening rush hour brought units from both Arlington and Alexandria FRD's.  The location of the incident was on a stretch of highway that bridges a rocky creek about 30 or more feet below and one of the Alexandria paramedics fell over the guardrail and dropped to the creekbed where he was critically injured.

Dave Statter has been keeping up with the developing story on STATter911 since it occurred and I recommend that you check on the STORY HERE to both learn a lesson and be informed of the unfolding narrative.  It is not known yet what led to the medic's plunge.

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For the past month I have been getting emails and FB messages from people telling me that they have been acquiring e-readers, mostly as gifts, and they are really pleased (shall I add "excited"?) with their new devices.  Most of them have been getting the Amazon Kindle e-reader, although sales reports show that Barnes & Noble's Nook is doing pretty well, too.  The Sony e-reader is a distant third, but I think that's due to a heavy advertising imbalance rather than quality of product.  One acquaintence of mine said that his wife gave him one for an early Valentine's gift.  And from the joy I "heard" in his announcement, I could tell that she really hit the spot with that one.

You know by now that I, too, am an enthusiastic booster of the eBook readers and am equally fascinated by the rapid growth of their usage in what is an inevitable transfer of reading habits from print to digital.  A recent article in Wireless and Mobile News reported,

The share of adults in the United States who own tablets or eReaders nearly doubled (in the past year…ed.) reported Pew Research. The main reason for this surge apparently is the introduction of the lower-priced Kindle Fire and Nook as well as the price drop of eReaders below $100.

This is the kind of information we expected because Amazon sold a record number of Kindle Fire tablets. When tablets like the HP TouchPad cost less than $200 they sold-out.

They go on to tell us that the share of adults in the United States who own tablets went from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January. The same surge in growth also applied to eBook readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period. The number of Americans owning one tablet or e-reader went from 18% in December to 29% in January.  Now that is an impressive statistic.

Now let's make an impressive statistic ourselves and fill out our morning equipment check sheets.  I'll get the coffee started.   See you back in the day room in a little while.

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Amazon Kindle prices begin at $79.

CLICK HERE to review the different models offered.
(Firegeezer recommends the Touch-3G model)

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Posted by on February 9, 2012 • Filed under: Kindle, morning lineup • Tagged: ,

Morning Lineup – February 4

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Saturday Morning – Power Up

File this under How to Make a Million.  This little plug-thingy is a power adaptor for the Amazon Kindle e-reader.  A USB cord plugs into the other end of it and when you connect the two, it enables you to recharge the permanent battery in the device.  You don't have to use the power adaptor because you can plug the USB cord into your computer and charge your Kindle from there.  But not only is it much slower that way, but you have to have access to a computer (that is plugged in) to use it.  So this little power adaptor is virtually a necessity, but not absolutely required.

Prior to December 1 this power adaptor was included with your Kindle purchase, so you were all set to go, right out of the box.  But sensing the strong demand for Kindles likely to occur during the Christmas rush, some marketing whiz-kid convinced the policy-makers to include only the USB cord in the sales box and offer the power adaptor separately for $15.  When you take into account that perhaps as many as 5 million Kindle e-readers were sold over the holiday season (Amazon doesn't release the numbers), you can figure for yourself how that boosted the sales figures for the 4th-quarter.

This morning I see that Amazon is selling the adaptor for $10 if you buy it with a Kindle.  That's a welcome concession, but really, guys.  For all the money that your customers are spending already for your device and future eBook sales, you really oughta' go back to including this plug that probably doesn't cost more than 12 cents to make.

Here's a stat for you:  The number of Americans who own a tablet or e-reader is estimated to be 29% of the adult population.

Let's start on another set of stats now and get this equipment checked out.  I'm going to get more coffee started for us… a Saturday kicker.  See you back in the day room.

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Posted by on February 4, 2012 • Filed under: Kindle, morning lineup